Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, generator, gearbox, nacelle, and one or more rotor blades. The rotor blades capture kinetic energy from wind using known foil principles and transmit the kinetic energy through rotational energy to turn a shaft coupling the rotor blades to a gearbox, or if a gearbox is not used, directly to the generator. The generator then converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy that may be deployed to a utility grid. Such configurations may also include power converters that are used to convert a frequency of generated electric power to a frequency substantially similar to a utility grid frequency.
A plurality of wind turbines are commonly used in conjunction with one another to generate electricity and are commonly referred to as a wind farm. Wind turbines on a wind farm typically include their own meteorological monitors that perform, for example, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, and/or air density measurements. In addition, a separate meteorological mast or tower (“met mast”) having higher quality meteorological instruments that can provide more accurate measurements at one point in the farm is commonly provided.
Many wind turbines employ human machine interaction interfaces (HMIs), which typically include simple command based systems, or simple graphic user interfaces leveraging the selection of options through menus, entry of specific pieces of data, and the ability to review sensor data from individual assets or the overall performance of an integrated system. Wind farms, however, can be extremely complex and the performance of such farms is often the result of the interactions of all the assets within the farm (which themselves may differ in their unique characteristics), the settings for each turbine (e.g., blade angle), the physical position of each turbine within the farm, unique moment by moment conditions (e.g., wind direction and other weather conditions), and even predictive maintenance schedules of the turbines.
Thus, a system and method for controlling a wind farm that includes a model-based interface would be welcomed in the art. More specifically, a system and method that provides a simpler and more effective way for users to make decisions needed to optimize performance of the wind farm over time, as well as to adapt to changing conditions would be advantageous.